PASCHAL 514 PASCHAL
third cup is filled; and grace after meals is said, and the third cup drunk in a reclining posture. A cup of wine is now poured out for the prophet Elias, in a dead silence which is maintained for some time, and the door is opened. Imprecations against unbelievers, taken from the Psalms and Lamentations, are then reciteti. Those were introduced only during the Middle Ages. After this the fourth cup is filled and the great Hallel (Pss., cxv-cxviii) and a prayer of praise are recited. Before drinking the fourth cup, the Jews of some countries recite five poetical pieces, and then the fourth cup is drunk. At the end a prayer asking God to accept what they have done is added. Among the German and Polish Jews this prayer is followed by popular songs.
The same ceremonies are observed the next evening. According to the Law the fifteenth and twenty-first were to be kept as solenm festivals and days of rest. At present the fifteenth and sixteenth, the twenty-first and twenty-second are whole holidays, a custom introduced among the Jews of the Dispersion to make sure that they fulfilled the precepts of the Law on the proper day. The other days are half-holidays. Special services are held in the synagogues throughout the Passover week. Formerly the date of the Pasch was fixed by actual observation [Schürer, " History of the Jewish People" (Edinburgh, 1902), I, II, Append. 3]. It is now deduced from astronomical calculations.
Oesterley and Box, Religion and Worship of the Synagogue (London, 1907); Dembitz, Jewish Services in the Synagogue and Home (Philadelphia, 1898); Lesêtre in Vigouroux, Dict. de la Bible, s. v. Paque; Jewish Encycl.; Ginsburg in Kitto, Cyclop. of Bibl. Lit.; Abrahams in Hastings, Dict. of the Bible}}, s. v. Passover; Smith, Bibl. Dict.; Zangwill, Dreamers of the Ghetto (London); Jacobs, Jewish Year Book (London, annual) ; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, II (London, 1900), 479.
- C. Aherne.
Paschal I, Pope (817-824), the date of his birth is unknown; he died in April, May, or June, 824. He was the son of a Roman named Bonosus. While still young he joined the Roman clergy and was taken into the papal patriarchate (Lateran Palace) where he was instructed in the Divine Service and the Holy Scripture. Leo III having appointed him superior of the monastery of St. Stephen near the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, he took care of the pilgrims who came to Rome. On the death of Stephen IV (24 January, 817) Paschal was unanimously chosen as his successor. On the following day he was consecrated and enthroned. He entered into relations with Emperor Louis, sending him several ambassadors in rapid succession. In 817 he received from the emperor a document, "Pactum Ludovicianum", confirming the rights and possessions of the Holy See. This document with later amendments is still extant (cf. especially Sickel, "Das Privileg Ottos I für die römische Kirche", Innsbruck, 1883, 50 sqq., 174 sqq.). Paschal remained on friendly terms with the Frankish nobility and sent a special legation with rich gifts to the marriage of King Lothair I, son of Emperor Louis. In spring, 823, Lothair went to Rome and on 5 April he was solemnly crowned emperor by Paschal. Although the pope himself opposed the sovereignty of the Frankish emperors over Rome and Roman territory, high officials in the papal palace, especially Primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law Leo Nomenculator, were at the head of the party which supported the Franks, and advocated the supremacy of the emperor. Shortly after the departure of King Lothair in 823, both these officials were blinded and killed by the pope's servants. Paschal himself was accused of being the originator of this deed, but he cleared himself of suspicion by an oath. The ambassadors sent to Rome by Emperor Louis to investigate the affair could not punish the perpetrators, as the pope declared the murdered officials guilty of treason. Paschal supported new missionary expeditions which went out from the Frankish Empire. He sent a letter of introduction to Bishop Halitgar of Cambria, and appointed Archbishop Ebo of Rheims as papal legate to the pagan countries in Northern Europe.
In 814 under Leo the Armenian, the Iconoclastic controversy broke out with renewed violence in the Byzantine Empire. Theodore of Studium, the great champion of orthodoxy, wrote repeatedly to Pope Paschal, who encouraged him to persevere. At the same time Theodosius of Constantinople, unlawfully made patriarch by Emperor Leo, sent a legation to the pope. The latter, however, remained loyal to the cause of Theodore of Studium, and dispatched legates to Leo to win him from the Iconoclasts, but without success. Numerous monks who had been driven out of Greece by Leo came to Rome where the pope received them kindly, assigning them places in the newly-erected monasteries, such as St. Praxedis, St. Cecilia, Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, near the Lateran Palace. Paschal was very active in completing, restoring, and beautifying churches and monasteries. The basilicas of St. Praxedis, St. Cecilia, and S. Maria in Dominica were completely rebuilt by him. The mosaics, which at that time ornamented the apses of these three churches as well as the chapel of St. Zeno in St. Praxedis, demonstrate to-day the deterioration of this art. In St. Peter's he erected chapels and altars, in which the remains of martyrs from the Roman catacombs, especially those of Sts. Processus and Marinianus, were placed. He also placed the relics of many Roman martyrs in the church of St. Praxedis where their names are still legible. The discovery of the relies of St. Cecilia and companions, and their translation to the new church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, are well described in "Liber Pontificalis" (cf. Kirsch, "Die hl. Cäcilia in der römischen Kirche des Altertums", Paderborn, 1910). He made great improvements in the choir of the church of S. Maria Maggiore. Paschal was interred in the church of St. Praxedis, and is honoured as a saint on 14 May.
Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, II, 52 sqq.; Einhardi Annals in Mon. Germ, hist.: Script., I, 124 sqq.; Jaffé, Regesta Rom. Pont., 2nd ed., I (Leipzig, 1885), 318 sqq.; Simson, Jahrbücher der deutschen Reiches unter Ludwig dem Frommen (Leipzig, 1874-76); Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'Etat pontifical in Revue d'hist. et de littér. religeuses, I (Paris, 1896), 297 sqq.; Hartmann, Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter, III, pt. i (Gotha, 1008); Marucchi, Basiliques el églises de Rome (Rome, 1902).
- J. P. Kirsch
Paschal II, Pope (Rainerius), succeeded Urban II, and reigned from 13 Aug., 1099, till he died at Rome, 21 Jan., 1118. Born in central Italy, he was received at an early age as a monk in Cluny. In his twentieth year he was sent on business of the monastery to Rome, and was retained at the papal court by Gregory VII, and made Cardinal-Priest of St. Clement's church. It was in this church that the conclave met after the death of Pope Urban, and Cardinal Rainerius was the unanimous choice of the sacred college. He protested vigorously against his election, maintaining, with some justice, that his monastic training had not fitted him to deal with the weighty problems which confronted the papacy in that troublous age. His protestations were disregarded by his colleagues, and he was consecrated the following day in St. Peter's. Once pope, he betrayed no further hesitation and wielded the sceptre with a firm and prudent grasp. The main lines of his policy had been laid by the master minds of Gregory and Urban, in whose footsteps he faithfully followed, while the unusual length of his pontificate, joined to a great amiability of character, made his reign an important factor in the development of the medieval papal dominion. Urban II had lived to witness the complete success of his wonderful movement for the liberation of
